Mars Au
by LittleWhoMouse
Summary: The Doctor, tired of losing everyone, is about to turn around and help Adelaide Brooke and her team when a very familiar voice stops him.


This was originally written for A Who in Whoville on tumblr

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"Goodbye, Doctor."

He knows he shouldn't help Adelaide and her team, but he's seen too much death and destruction. He turns away from the open doors of the TARDIS. "No. Not this time."

The Doctor begins to step away from his ship when an arm snakes around his waist. "What do you call a Time Lord who acts like a stupid ape?"

He whips his head around. Rose Tyler, but not. Her hair is more light brown sugar, than peroxide blonde and her eyes, those lovely hazel eyes, have changed into dark pools of amber with shimmering shades of gold. But the thing that really catches the Doctor's notice is the strange way time seems to fold around her. Not quite Time Lord, but most definitely not human. She's not fixed like Jack, either. Time still moves around her, but now it stretches far beyond what should be one human lifespan.

"What are you?"

Rose raises an eyebrow and gives him a cheeky grin. "Still rude, I see." She pauses and shifts backwards into the TARDIS. "He never did figure it out. Just said I was impossible."

The Doctor steps into the TARDIS, his need to help the Mars team pushed away by the temptation of Rose.

He removes his helmet as he asks "How did you even get here? And where am I - the other me. Oh you know what I mean."

She looks away. "You know there was a reason my Dad knew to catch me - it was me."

It's the way her empty hand curls that gives her away. "Rose, how long have you be on your own?"

"How long has it been since Donna?" She snaps back. "Sorry." She says as her cheeks turn red and she bites her bottom lip. "He said she'd have to leave, but he never told me why." She gives him a weary grin. "Both had that in common. Always keeping your little secrets." She turns to walk up the ramp. "So, where should we to lonely souls go?"

The Doctor doesn't move. For a moment he just watches her as she runs her fingers along the rim of the console. "How long, Rose?" He asks again.

"A while." She growls "God I forgot what stubborn bastard you could be. Now are we going to go? I don't think you want to be here when that base blows."

The Doctor clenches his teeth. His eyes shift between the TARDIS rotor and Rose. "She can survive it. The old girl's been through worst."

"Haven't we all." Rose mumbles.

Head bowed, shoulders hunched, and her eyes - the Doctor sucks in a sudden breath. He sees the same look mirrored in his own. It's a haunted look only the damned share.

"Right," He says and claps his hands but the sound is strange. "Forgot I was in this thing." He mutters. "First things first." He wriggles and writhes as he tries to get the orange space suit off.

"Last time I think I had to help take it off." Rose says with a smirk.

The Doctor's head whips up towards her. "Oh, that's right." He says as he clears his throat.

Her eyes widen. "Wait a minute are you saying you could have taken it off yourself"

The Doctor rubs the back of his neck. "Well..."

Rose laughs and the Doctor is half surprised at the way that sound still causes his hearts to skip. "It would go faster if you helped." He says.

Rose walks towards him with a wide toothy grin.

"You're not going to let this go are you?" He asks.

"Nope." She replies with a chuckle.

Freed from the space suit the Doctor grabs his blazer from between two coral struts and bounds up the ramp.

"Right." He says as he begins to push buttons and twiddle dials. "Hold on, Rose Tyler."

She hasn't heard her name said quite like that in a very long time and oh how she's missed it.

They land with a thump.

"Here we are." The Doctor says with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"You think you're so impressive." She says with her trademark grin.

"I am so impressive." And he takes her hand and runs towards the doors of the TARDIS.

Opening the doors, they dash out into the freezing cold. "Could have warn-" She stops as frozen as the waves of the ocean.

Woman Wept.

It was the place he took her after their first trip to Pete's world.

"No one to hear you, Rose, but me." He'd said.

It had been a gift. The chance to say all the things she'd wanted to say since Sarah Jane until then. So she wailed and raged got everything off her chest until she'd collapsed onto her back into the snow. He had stretched out beside her. She didn't apologize for calling him an idiot several times but she asked instead if he wanted to do the same. He declared it was time for tea.

Rose looks at the Doctor. "Why here?" She asks, her voice wobbling slightly.

"No one to hear you, but me." He says with a soft gentle smile.

"Will you?" His fingers start to slip from hers, but she holds them tight. "Please."

He turns to look at the frozen swell of waves. "That could take days, Rose. Possibly a century."

She reaches for his cheek with her free hand and gently turns his head back to her. "I have time." She says.

"How long?" He asks.

"Forever." She says with tender smile.

"Rose." He says her name as if it is a prayer and a curse.

She turns from him and lets his hand go stuffing hers into the pockets of her thin jacket.

"He never really explained it. I think sometimes he hated me for having something he lost." She peeks at him, but the Doctor remains as stoic as he did last time - just listening.

She begins to pace needing to move if she was going to talk.

"When Pete died, he left a rather strange note for me. We didn't figure it out until it seemed like the universe was ending." She says with a dry laugh. "Then again the universe always seems like it's about to end doesn't it?"

When that fails to get even a smile from the Doctor, Rose clears her throat and nervously continues. "I was apparently the problem." She turns her head up to the sky. "Something about time pressure." She mummers. "It was so long ago I don't really remember."

"He said I was like a large paradox." She huffs. "The longer I stayed, the more danger the universe was in."

She begins tracing patterns in the snow with the tip of her toes. "He'd figured out a way to get me to go, but of course I refused." She glances over at the Doctor with small smile. "Couldn't leave him, could I?"

Her smile falls away as she looks back towards the heavens. "Three days later we were attacked by the Zygons. Apparently they're much more aggressive in that universe."

She starts to talk faster now, wanting this all to be over. "The war lasted quite a few months. Every time we thought we'd beaten them back, they had sudden resurgence. We finally figured out a way to stop them, but it meant -" Her voice brakes slightly. "It was a suicide run. He-" She struggles to swallow. "He died as he was born I suppose." She ignores her tears and continues on. "Didn't see much point in stay after that. So I took the vortex manipulator he made and went back to that day."

"Before Pete caught me, he got a text. Mum thought it must have been you somehow - your jiggery pokery. That's why he jumped when he did."

Suddenly tired she collapses onto her back and stares at the stars. "I'd brought back a button with me. They were better. Made it easier to jump from anywhere you were to the parallel version of that location." She grins. "Unfortunately for me that was a men's washroom. Oh that poor bloke!" She chuckles before sobering once more.

"Took me a while to figure out how to the vortex manipulator over here. Time's not exactly the same after all. But eventually I figured it out and well I've been traveling ever since."

The Doctor comes to stand by her head and looks down at her. "How long, Rose?" He asks again in quite gentle voice.

Her vision begins to blur and she starts to sniffle her nose. "Long enough to learn what you meant outside that chip shop."

"Oh, Rose." He kneels down beside her and gathers her into his arms.

"Please don't leave me. Please let me stay. Don't send me away again." She whispers to him over and over again and the Doctor can feel his hearts breaking with each breathy sob, with each tear.

He pulls away slightly so he can cup her face between his palms. "I promise, Rose." He says kissing her brow. "I promise." Kissing her left cheek. "I promise." Kissing her right cheek. "I promise." He mummers again before he kisses her lips.

As he pulls away, she looks into his eyes and sees the sincerity of his words. "Thank you." She says and pulls him back into a hug.

They stay like that for moment before the Doctor starts to rise. "Come on." He says reaching down a hand to help her up. "Think it's time for tea."

She smiles and they head back to the TARDIS.

At the doors, the Doctor pulls Rose to a stop and turns her so she faces him. The Doctor starts and stops several times. Finally he seems ready as he straightens his shoulders.

"Rose Tyler, I love you." He says as if the universe might end.

Rose can't help but smile at the way he seems to be holding his breath. "Quite right too." she says and rises up on her tip toes to kiss his nose. "Now how about some tea?"

She turns to leave, but glances back at him. "Oh, and I love you too." She says with a trademark grin before dashing into the TARDIS.

The Doctor's not sure he's ever smiled so wide. He knows they still have a way to go but they'll work on it together. "The Doctor and Rose in the TARDIS." He says with a laugh. "Allons-y!"


End file.
